This invention relates to neurodegenerative conditions.
Alzheimer's Disease is a neurodegenerative illness characterized by memory loss and other cognitive deficits. The prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease increases with age, and the presence of the disease is difficult to determine without brain biopsy. Alzheimer's Disease is characterized by the presence of neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal cell death. Post-mortem slices of brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients exhibit the presence of amyloid in the form of proteinaceous extracellular cores of the neuritic plaques. The amyloid cores of these neuritic plaques are composed of a protein called the amyloid-beta or amyloid-b. Amyloid-containing neuritic plaques are a prominent feature of selective areas of the brain in Alzheimer's Disease patients as well as patients afflicted with Downs Syndrome. However, little is known about the development of Alzheimer's Disease or the mechanisms, which contribute to the disease.